Someone recently posed the question to me, “Why are designers such push overs?” This led to a discussion that attempted to answer that but in the end, left me pondering the very same question.

The service industry …

Many different types of businesses can be lumped into the service industry category. Basically any business that runs on providing a specific service to a customer or client can be included. A day spa is a service business. A mechanic is a service business. A fast food restaurant is a service business. A design firm is a service business.

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Each type of service business can then be divided into different categories. For instance, technical, creative/marketing, health/fitness, entertainment, food, etc. They can also be defined by whether the service offers a tangible, intangible or experiential “product”.

All of these things factor in to customer/client perception of a business. However, the more I think about it, the more I come to realize that somewhere along the line, people have gotten the wrong idea about design.

Misconceptions?

Most people would not take their car into a mechanic for a new brakes, then once the mechanic starts on the job, tell them, “Can you also work on the transmission and put in a new battery? But I don’t want to pay for all that, I just want to still pay the $300 that you quoted me for the brake job.” The reason I believe most people would not do this is that it is well established how an auto mechanic works and that they expect to be paid for all parts and all work they do.

I could relate a similar scenario in almost any service industry. You don’t go in to a restaurant, order one thing on the menu, then order two more entrees and declare that you’re only going to pay for the first thing you ordered. Yet a client that hires a designer to create a website can often ask for additional work to be done than what is being paid for. This is what all of us designers call, “scope creep” – where the original scope of what you have been hired to do (create a website with certain functionality, for example) changes and a client asks you to do additional work that you did not originally agree on. Many designers just blame the client for scope creep, but designers themselves let it happen all the time.

Education …

Granted, building websites has not been around as long as building cars, but I think there is still a percentage of people hiring designers that truly believe what we do is not really work that takes skill. This is a sad situation where not only does the client tend to not respect that you have talent and expertise (and that is why they hired you), they sometimes think that all you do is press some buttons on a program, or worse yet, that they could easily “do it themselves” but they just don’t have the time.

Personally, I believe that designers do have a responsibility to clients to explain what they do, to involve the client in the process and in so doing, educate them that it does indeed take skill and expertise. Educating your client brings more value to what you do.

“The Customer is King!”

This old phrase has been used in the retail and service industry for years, especially for businesses to drive it home to their employees that the customer is always right and you should do whatever it takes to please them. In an industry such as design, a client is paying to produce something to their liking, so it would make sense then that you should give them exactly what they want, no? Well, yes and no. If a client paid an interior designer to redo their kitchen, they would rely on the experience of that designer to help them choose appropriate wall colors, flooring, tile, light fixtures, etc. But the designer also offers them some choices and involves them in the process of selecting. Granted, there are some clients who would put all of their trust in the designer (after the designer got to know them a little bit of course) and just let them handle the whole job. But the majority of people are going to want a say in what their new kitchen will look like.

Some are not going to like what I’m about to say next, but a whole lot of graphic and web designers have an attitude that prevents actually working well with a client. They expect to be hired because they are experts and professionals, but they reject client input and refuse to work with them, making the client feel put-off from the beginning.

A lack of understanding and the reputation of designer-as-fickle-artist could most definitely be two reasons why some clients have trouble working with designers in the first place. These things can also reinforce the negative perception some people have that when you hire a designer, you can expect to be told what to do – expect not to be “the king”.

Designer door mat …

The opposite of the designer-with-attitude is of course the one that allows clients to walk all over them. This one I feel is even more to blame for the phenomenon of clients asking for more work than what they’re actually paying for. Especially when you’re a new freelancer or even a new design firm, you’re going to want to go out of your way to make your clients happy. In so doing, you often completely lose sight of what the original project specs were and in turn sell yourself short. A client might want a simple, informational website, then get the great idea to add another feature – like a blog. You may already be creating their site in such a way that a blog would be something easy to add, so you say, “Sure, no problem!” Then they get another great idea, and another one. Each time, you say nothing but, “Sure, no problem!” By the end, you’ve created an interactive, content managed, ecommerce enabled site and the client, while completely happy with your work is going to walk away thinking that is exactly how design works – pay a set amount that was originally quoted and get whatever you want.

A balancing act …

Between clients not understanding exactly what we do and a tendency for some designers to either be too condescending or too much of a push over, what is really going to make for a great experience on both sides is balance.

A designer should have confidence in what they are doing without having a condescending attitude about it. They should be experienced enough to handle the job at hand and have the creativity and skills to accomplish it. Part of the job of the designer is to educate a client on the process, to listen closely to their needs, and to make professional recommendations and suggestions in such a way that the client does not feel like they do not have any input or are being told they don’t know their own business. Finally, a designer should develop the skill of spotting requests outside of the scope of a project and handling them in such a way as to not sell themselves short and not let the client add on a bunch of additional work without paying for it.

Though this balancing act, I believe that designers have the ability to change client perception of our industry, to gain respect, to do their best work possible and to have really happy clients.

About The Author

Sherry is the Creative Director at JV Media Design. Sherry's an art school grad and Los Angeles transplant living in Oregon who loves creativity in all forms, comic books, cupcakes and many more things that would make this bio way too long.

It is our job as professionals to try to educated our clients and help them succeed. This article highlights some of the biggest frustrations any designer has ever come across, if one hasn’t experienced these I’d like to meet them to understand how they have been so lucky.

The balancing act mentioned above is by far the hardest part, which clients do you allow wiggle room with and which ones do you follow your hard fast rules with.

Great post!

http://www.graphicdesignboss.com GraphicDesignBoss

great post Sherry!

I think that the main issue is educating your clients to see the value, rather than expect them to see it by themselves.

I also think that designers themselves need education when it comes to learning how to ‘do business’ with their clients. I remember one nightmare client in particular who taught me quite a few things about myself and how to do business which I blogged about recently http://bit.ly/g3PS3Q

http://katydwyerdesign.com/ Katy

I find the title misleading. This is really an excellent read for Designers and how to do business with their clients (as opposed to how to do business with designers).

As a freelance designer, I’ve found that the best practice is always to be upfront with my clients. If they ask for something more, and it’s outside the scope of work, be accommodating, but let them know right away what the added cost might be. And open communication is key. If they want more, but aren’t willing to pay much more, try to work within their budget (without giving away the farm!). Be creative and find other cost-effective solutions that might satisfy their needs. That will build their trust in you, and hopefully have them coming back to you for more work in the future.

http://www.brettwidmann.com Brett Widmann

This was a cool article. It gave me a look into the clients aspect of the business deal.